Barbra Streisand declares break from acting: 'I like time off'

Barbra Streisand's eagerly awaited book, My Name Is Barbra, was finally released about a month ago, so it seems sensible that the iconic diva has been taking some well-earned time off recently.

It comes as a shock, therefore, when she abruptly admits that hasn't been the case in a recent phone conversation with People magazine.

“[I’m] kind of overwhelmed,” she says, moments after putting in an ask with Renata, her longtime assistant, for some soup. “Just the demands of having to speak about what I’ve done for over 10 years. I’m sort of sick of myself, to tell you the truth.”

Fortunately for the 81-year-old Streisand, her fans have different ideas. My Name Is Barbra became an almost immediate hit, peaking at No. 2 on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list and selling over 55,000 copies in the United States within its first week of publication.

According to Streisand, reliving her history wasn't easy. She needed to be persuaded to talk about romance at all. However, curiosity among admirers regarding her life triumphed.

“I didn’t even want to talk about any relationships, My editor said to me, ‘You cannot do this. People want to know certain things about your life that are personal.’ And I said, ‘Well, OK, I will, but I can’t talk about it in an interview past anything I put in my book,” she confessed to the outlet.

Even though Streisand spent ten years writing about and considering her path, her followers were enamoured with the personal nuances. Instantly, My Name Is Barbra became a New York Times bestseller.

In-depth details about pivotal experiences such as growing up in Brooklyn and her Broadway debut were included in Streisand's memoir. She also brooded on famous relationships with actors like Marlon Brando, Elliott Gould, her ex-husband, and Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada.

"Well, one person, but I can't tell you his name," she said in response to the question of if any of her former boyfriends contacted her after the memoir was published.